News and updates from the Roxio PhotoShow team

Roxio PhotoShow links

October 08, 2008

We recently added some new features to the Roxio Online service, as well as some special benefits for our premium subscribers. Here's what's new...

Control the speed of your PhotoShow

You can now use this slider to control your PhotoShow's playback speed. Moving the slider to the left will produce slow PhotoShows that hold your photos onscreen for 10 seconds per photo or more. Moving it to the right will speed up the PhotoShow holding photos onscreen for less time. If you add a video to your PhotoShow, we'll automatically set the hold time so the video will play back in its entirety.

Frame your PhotoShow with a border

We’ve added a Border tab that lets you add a colorful border to your PhotoShow. There are many borders in a variety of styles and themes to choose from. This fun feature was previously only accessible by selecting certain styles. You now have full control of adding and removing borders to your PhotoShow, no matter what style you've chosen.

Get Premium PhotoShow desktop software

Over the past few weeks we have had many Roxio Online Premium subscribers request access to the classic PhotoShow 5 desktop software. We value your feedback and have made the software available to all Premium subscribers, using the software key found on your account page. We have also released a newer version of the PhotoShow desktop software that mirrors the experience on Roxio Online. It too is available on your account page, and you can install both version 5 and the new Roxio PhotoShow desktop software on the same computer should you choose.

Keep your PhotoShows in sync

When you make a PhotoShow in your Roxio PhotoShow desktop software and then post it to your member page, you now have two versions of the same PhotoShow: a local version, which is saved on your computer, and an online version, which is saved in your member page. Now with the Auto-sync feature it's a snap to keep these two versions in sync when making changes in your desktop software or even when editing it online.

When you post a PhotoShow, the online version of the show is automatically synced to the local version on your computer. That means when you make changes to the local version using your Roxio PhotoShow software, those changes are automatically applied to the online version. Similarly, if you make changes to the online version, those changes are automatically applied to the local version on your computer.

Download PhotoShows with ease

One of the benefits of Roxio Online membership is the ability to make a PhotoShow online from any Mac or PC computer and save it on your member page. Consequently, it is possible to have PhotoShows saved in your online account that are not saved on your computer.

With Roxio PhotoShow, you can download any PhotoShow in your online account and save it on your computer's hard drive. In this way you can back up a PhotoShow for safekeeping, edit it locally using your desktop software, and share it in ways not possible online such as burning it to DVD for playback on your TV.

Let us know what you think

We want to hear from you! Feel free to leave your feedback, suggestions and questions in the comments section.

September 29, 2008

As you may have noticed, we had some major problems with the Roxio Online website over the weekend, particularly with two of our fundamental features- creating and viewing PhotoShows. The problems were serious enough that we took the entire site down for several hours on Saturday night. If you tried to visit www.photoshow.com during that time, you would have seen a "down for maintenance" page instead.

The problem in a nutshell: For the past several weeks we've been adding some new backend testing services that more closely monitor our systems and alert us to problems when they occur. Ironically, one of these new monitoring services was the cause of Saturday's problem.

Luckily we spotted the issue quickly, but fixing it took much longer than expected. We are often able to fix intermittent issues without the disruption of bringing the whole website down, but in this case bringing the site down couldn't be avoided. It's always painful to do this, and it's not something we take lightly- especially when we can't notify you in advance.

So if you visited us on Saturday and the site wasn't working right, or if you saw the dreaded "maintenance" page, we'd like to apologize. We're continually working to make the Roxio Online service better, and that includes keeping it up and running reliably.

September 17, 2008

If you are new to Roxio Online Premium service, don't forget to download the Roxio PhotoShow desktop software for creating PhotoShows on your Windows PC. You don't have to wait for photos to upload, and you can burn your shows to DVD or SVCD. Get it on your account page (click the My Account link in the upper right when you are signed in.

Also, don't forget that you can change your Personal Web Page address (the web link where friends and family can find your shows) on your account page as well. We no longer ask you to choose an address when you sign up (makes it faster and easier), so if you want something other than the default web address, just visit your account page.

We heard reports of several people having problems uploading photos, playing shows, and general slowness of the service yesterday. The problem turned out to be a couple of misbehaving servers, and things should be running smoothly again. Our apologies for the inconvenience.

August 27, 2008

New features are now available for basic and Premium members! Roxio Online just keeps getting better.

1) Comments on PhotoShows. Now your friends and family can comment on your PhotoShows again. This was available on the old version of the site, and we're glad to have it back. Watch the accolades roll in as everyone jumps in on the fun after watching your shows. (If you had comments on your PhotoShows created on the old PhotoShow.com site, all those comments have returned, too!)

2) You can now add Borders to your PhotoShow! Borders are a great way to "frame" the show for a perfect story, and makes a great visual addition to your PhotoShow DVD. Choose from elegant to zany, with over 60 borders for Premium members (6 for Basic members).

3) We've also vastly improved the error messaging for sign up and sign in to make it less confusing when there's a problem creating an account or signing in.

August 20, 2008

If you're seeking help with Roxio Online or your PhotoShow software, our support center at www.roxio.com/support is the best place to start. There you'll find a searchable knowledge base, discussion groups, and answers to frequently asked questions. You can also contact our support team directly by submitting a help ticket.

When you submit a help ticket, you'll be asked to log in with your email and password:

An important note here: This is actually separate from the email/password that you provided when you created your account at www.photoshow.com. In order to submit a request for help, you'll need to create a new account in our help system, even if you already have an account at www.photoshow.com.

We know it can be frustrating having to create separate accounts for Roxio Online and our help system, and we agree that it's cumbersome. The good news is, it won't be this way forever! At the moment we have a huge project underway behind the scenes to merge these two systems into one. Once this is done, you'll only need one account to access all your Roxio services, including Roxio Online/PhotoShow, product registration and our help system.

August 13, 2008

If you are having problems signing up, we apologize for the rather unhelpful error messages we currently display. We promise to improve these as quickly as we can. In the meantime, here are some tips if the sign up page won't accept your information:

1) If your email is formatted correctly but it still gives you an error, it may mean we already have your email address in our system (maybe you signed in a long time ago to watch a show). In this case, go to the sign in page and click "Lost password." Then you can reset your password and log in.

2) Be sure to enter a unique name in the "Personal Web Address" field. This name will be part of the URL where friends and family can find your shows online. If it rejects the name you entered it means it is already taken. Try something more unusual or add a number to the end.

Some people have recently reported that their PhotoShows are not playing back. We have identified the cause of this and sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. This would also cause a problem where you could not finish creating a show after you uploaded your photos. The problem is expected to be fixed by tonight or tomorrow, and any PhotoShows that were not playing back will work just fine.

Recently we have been building up our infrastructure (adding servers, merging server locations) in order to improve performance and support more services. As a result of these changes, some of the pages ended up pointing to the wrong place. It will be fixed shortly.

August 12, 2008

Welcome to Roxio Online! If you are new to this service, we hope you will love sharing PhotoShows with friends and family as much as we do. For our existing users (photoshow.com), you have probably noticed a lot of changes to the web site. These changes have been a long time in the making (even before we were a part of Roxio), and are the result of extensive design planning based on your feedback (so thank you!).

Q: So, why the new design?

A: We had two goals when we started this effort. 1) Focus on your media, and 2) Make it a great experience. Your PhotoShows should be front and center for the best viewing experience. On the playback page you'll notice we now display your show in a huge 640x480 area, and on your member page all your shows are displayed in a gallery-style format. We also minimize distractions by keeping settings and forms hidden until you need to use them (click around and you notice items such as privacy settings only pop into view when accessed). The PhotoShow maker is all new and shows you your results in realtime, is easy to navigate, and now fully-featured in the online version including all the styles and thematic content!

Of course, we will continue to improve the design and add features based on your feedback, so please continue to send us your thoughts via the feedback link (at the bottom of every roxioonline.com page), or discuss with other users on the forums. If you want to search our knowledgebase, get chat help, or other support help visit our support center.

Q: Why is Roxio PhotoShow (the desktop application) so much different from the PhotoShow version 5? And what happened to the style packs?

A: The desktop application is also all-new and has been streamlined for making PhotoShows on your desktop using the exact same experience you would get online, plus we've integrated ALL the style packs into both the online and desktop experiences! In PhotoShow 5, the desktop version was a completely different beast than the online version, so it was confusing to create a show in one environment then edit in another. Sometimes you would be forced to lose some of your changes as a result. In our new version it doesn't matter if you are editing a show from your MacBook on the web while on vacation, or in the desktop application on your PC at home, you get the same authoring experience and you have access to all the styles.

Q: Why did you change the name to Roxio Online?

A: We realize "Roxio" may not be as descriptive of this service as "PhotoShow" but we have great things planned for Roxio Online, building on the fun, creative sharing and storytelling web site that it is today. By naming it Roxio Online, we are saying that we are serious about making this the best photo & video sharing platform in the world, and we're betting our name on that!

Thanks for reading, and keep checking back for news and updates as we add features and improve Roxio Online.

March 12, 2008

If you get the PhotoShow newsletters and offers you’ll almost always see an offer for a Photoshow DVD.If you’ve never gotten a PhotoShow DVD before is it because you don’t understand the value of them?Do you see the offer and think, “What’s the point of that?”I’ll tell you what I know about the value of PhotoShow DVDs.As a mother of one fantastically cute little boy I take pictures and when I can I make a PhotoShow.

I’m not even sure I’d call it making a PhotoShow.More often than not it feels more like I’m crafting a keepsake.I won’t always order a PhotoShow DVD but when I have those great moments like first smiles, first steps, first words, and first hug and kiss, those are certainly the moments that I’ll craft a compilation of the moments into a PhotoShow and get a few PhotoShow DVDs made for me, Grandma Janet, Grandma Sally, Nana.You don’t just have another DVD.You have a PhotoShow DVD that you made with the moments that you captured and made into motion picture scrapbook.The professional packaging really punches up the impact of the keepsake.

Both Grandmas really like to watch the PhotoShow DVDs with the rest of the extended family that live near them.Nana just likes to get them because none of her other friends with grandkids make DVDs of their kids.(Nana believes that one of life’s greatest mysteries is why the man who wasn’t good enough to marry her daughter is the father of the smartest little boy in the world.)

Now let me break down the dollars and cents.The best offer that I have ever seen offered was the PhotoShow DVD 5 Pack.(Keep your eye out for this offer.)They let me buy 5 coupon codes for 5 PhotoShow DVDs.The coupons don’t expire until June.The price was $49.99 which made each PhotoShow DVD cost me $9.99. That is the cheapest price per PhotoShow DVD that I have ever seen offered and/or had.And I know that if I make a PhotoShow DVD I’ll buy at least 2 or 3 of the same PhotoShow.One for me, one for Grandma, and maybe one for the other Grandma, and of course one for Nana.The coupon codes last for a good amount of time so I can use them at my leisure but I picked two of the PhotoShow DVD 5 Packs up to hold me over until June.So far I’ve used 4 of my 10 coupons.(Valentine’s Day PhotoShow DVDs for the grandparents.)I don’t know what I’ll use my other 6 coupon codes on, but I’m sure we’ll have a PhotoShow DVD after our trip to Mexico.

For me, the mother of one adorable little boy, PhotoShow DVDs truly do make great gifts and fantastic keepsake for me.The cost is very reasonable if you take advantage of the email offers and so far, I’ve found the PhotoShow DVD 5 Pack to be the best deal going.